The history of the School of Materials Science and Engineering can be traced back to 1958, the founding year of Lanzhou Jiaotong University, when the Metalworking Teaching and Research Office and the Metalworking Laboratory were established. The Department of Materials Science and Engineering was established in 2003. In June 2018, the School of Materials Science and Engineering (SMSE) was founded based on the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in conjunction with the relevant material research institutions at Lanzhou Jiaotong University. The SMSE aims to cultivate high-level professional and technical talents in rail transit materials and to promote the research and development of advanced materials and forming technology. The SMSE has cultivated a number of high-level professional and technical talents for China's economic and social development, especially for rail transit industry, great western development and local economic construction, as well as the material scientific and technological progress at home and abroad.

The SMSE has 57 faculty members currently, including 12 professors and 24 associate professors. Among them, 44 have doctoral degrees and others have master’s degrees. There are 5 doctoral supervisors and 40 master supervisors, as well as 3 external doctor supervisors and 9 external master supervisors. Among the faculty members, one was selected in the "Ministry of Education New Century Talents Support Program", one as the "Leading Talent in Gansu Province", one as the "Zhan Tianyou Railway Science and Technology Special Award", two as the "Youth Teacher Talent Award for Gansu Province Colleges and universities", one as the "Feitian Scholar-Distinguished Professor", one as the "Feitian Scholar-Young Scholar", four in the "CAS Western Young Scholar Talent Program," two as the "Gansu Province Longyuan Young Talent".

The SMSE has a comprehensive cultivation system for undergraduate, master and doctor education. It has two undergraduate majors: Materials Science and Engineering (with two directions: Metallic Materials and Inorganic Non-metallic Materials), Material Forming and Control Engineering (with two directions: Welding and Plastic Forming). It has two first-level academic master degrees of "Materials Science and Engineering" and "Chemistry," as well as a professional master degree of "Materials and Chemical Engineering". Additionally, it has two second-level doctor degrees of "Rail Transit Equipment Materials and Applied Engineering" and "Green Coating Technology and Equipment". The first-level academic master degree of "Materials Science and Engineering" is a key discipline in Gansu Province. Materials Science ranks in the top 1% of global ESI disciplines.

The SMSE is supported by several provincial and ministerial-level research platforms, such as National Green Coating Technology and Equipment Engineering Technology Research Center, Provincial and Ministerial Collaborative Innovation Center for Key Technologies and Equipment of Concentrated Solar Energy Industry as well as Gansu Province Organic Semiconductor Materials and Applied Technology Research Center, which provide the favorable teaching and research conditions. The SMSE focuses on the "rail transit" industry characteristics and "Western region and environment" feature to conduct talent cultivation and scientific research, forming distinct advantages and characteristics. It has relatively strong research capabilities in new materials and advanced processing technology of traffic equipment, new photoelectric materials and devices, functional interface materials and surface protection technology, new energy materials and devices, etc., and get important achievements at home and abroad, greatly promoting the scientific and technological progress in the related fields. Over the past five years, the SMSE has undertaken 91 research projects, including 17 national projects, 55 provincial and ministerial projects, and 19 departmental and bureau projects. It has published 358 high-level academic papers, including 313 SCI-indexed and 45 EI-indexed papers. It has been granted 86 national patents, including 19 invention patents and 67 utility model patents. The research achievements have received three provincial and ministerial-level scientific and technological awards.

Update to Dec. 2024